


joey's choice

by sinead



Series: spy!sync [3]
Category: NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-14
Updated: 2009-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-02 19:00:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinead/pseuds/sinead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>mission 'npossible: guns, explosions, disguises, sex, and if I could arrange for it, there'd be cheesy Lalo Schifrin theme music, too.</p><p>(Third story in a series with no consecutive time line.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	joey's choice

**Author's Note:**

> This story has some implied violence.

Joey chose people. The day, the horrible, hungover, fucked-his-life-for-good day that Chris had walked into that armpit of a guardhouse, flanked by the two MPs whom he managed to make look stupid and slow, even though Joey knew they were neither, and stood in the door of the cell and said, "I'd like to offer you a job", Joey chose Chris. Something about days that bad gave things a certain clarity. Days like that, you could look up from a patch of stained concrete floor framed by your own boots and into a pair of wary dark eyes and just know.

The day he chose Justin was also a very bad day, the worst he could remember. Things had gone wrong from the start of the op, and Justin and Jason, who were both players in the scene, had been made as agents, which should have been the worst thing that could have happened. Except for the fact that they had also both been captured, which was so catastrophically bad Joey couldn't even think about it. Instead, he concentrated on Chris as he calmly went over the plan. The plan to get them back. JC's cover was still intact, although hanging by a thread, and he had risked it to get them the intell on where Jason and Justin were being kept in that huge fucking fortress of a house. Goddamn _infrared_ and pressure sensitive _floor_ tiles, and goddamn cameras every _four_ feet, why didn't they just dig a fucking _moat_, but he nodded and studied the floorplans with Chris, and said,

"you get me the time, I'll get them out"

and tried not to think about how he had played one-on-one with Justin the weekend before, Justin dancing around him and talking trash until Joey had tackled him to the ground and they lay there, gasping with laughter, and Joey had been surprised to realize that he actually liked Justin, he thought Justin was an okay kid. Now he was on the move, and his head was completely in the mission, his sole focus on the next objective, the next twenty feet of corridor, the next corner to check, the next lock to burn, and he was listening to Chris and JC on his headset as he moved, and the part of Joey that had gotten queasy thinking about what might be happening to Justin and Jason went away and was very quiet, because that part had nothing to do with the mission, that part would only get in the way.

And finally, _finally_, it seemed like everything was going good, everything was proceeding according to plan, because JC had taken out the cameras without tripping an alarm, and Chris was taking out the perimeter security and standing by the mother of all big bangs to cover their escape, and he was heading for Jason, the place Jason was supposed to be. Jason was the primary objective, because Jason had been point man on the op, and Jason had actually gotten a look at the information they had originally come to steal, about a million years ago. If Jason was still alive, if he still had higher cerebral functions and wasn't in drug-induced psychosis, he might just have what they needed, so Jason came first.

He reached the room indicated on the floorplan by JC's intell, and hit the door low and hard, going in fast, and fuck, there was nothing there, no one, and he was up and out in the hall and heading for the secondary presumed location for Jason when everything started to fall apart. First there was JC's hissed curse on the headset, something about Melcher, who was head of security, and Chris was saying, "I don't care if you have to do a fucking lap dance, just keep him out of--", and then the alarms went off. Chris was yelling the countdown in his ear, and Joey just kicked the second door in, no time for finesse, and again, there was no one, except this time there was Jason's jacket, neatly folded over the back of a chair. It could have meant anything or nothing, he might have sat there to be questioned or to eat a meal or read a book or negotiate for his life. But he wasn't there now, so there was a third possible location for Jason, and a fourth, and Chris was screaming, "Jason is the primary, get Jason" as if the words hurt him and that's when Joey chose.

He ripped the earpiece out of his ear, left it dangling so that Chris' voice was just a faint echo in his head, and went after Justin, who was exactly where JC said he would be, lying on a cot, drunk with narcotics and stumbling in pain when Joey pulled him to his feet, not looking at his face because if he looked too long at Justin's face he would go out into the hall and find someone and kill them.

Instead he got them both out, outside just as the detonation on the other side of the house went up and the blast concussion knocked Justin to his knees, outside as JC raced up, white faced and sweating, and helped him carry Justin to the perimeter where Chris was waiting, guarding their only way out. They ran past the bodies of the perimeter guards that Chris had dropped like candy wrappers in his path, and all Joey thought as he saw them was that when Chris saw Justin he would want to come back and kill them all over again. Then they were at the car, JC sliding behind the wheel, his papers on the seat, his story ready, his face for the scene cool and intact - because he would have to talk them past any checkpoints and also because JC lived for the scene, he loved the scene - while Joey and Chris and Justin were rolling into the back behind the dark tinted windows. Chris was questioning him, about Jason, about what went down, and all Joey could answer was "he wasn't there" until finally Chris stopped talking and Joey could lean his head back. Justin was slumped, propped like a ragdoll on the seat between them, and when Joey, his eyes at half mast, rolled his head over to look at him, he could just see Chris on Justin's other side. Chris' hand was stretched out, hovering above Justin's hand where it lay loosely on Chris' leg, and Chris' hand was shaking, and Joey knew that he had made the right choice and he knew he had made it so Chris wouldn't have to.


End file.
